BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany and France want to give fresh impetus to a long-delayed project to develop a joint battle tank, their defence ministers said at a meeting in Berlin on Monday, hoping to have a roadmap in place by year’s end.
In 2017 Berlin and Paris agreed to work on a joint fighter jet under French lead, estimated to cost some 100 billion euros in total, and also a Franco-German tank to succeed the German Leopard 2 and the French Leclerc.
But the project has been plagued by disagreements and delays, further straining ties already burdened by differences over energy topics and the question to what extent Europe should become independent from the U.S. in its security policy.
“Despite all the doomsayers and rumours, we want this joint project,” German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said, reaffirming the tank was meant to be operational in 2035 at the earliest.
“We aim to send a clear message today, as you phrased it quite nicely, that we want to leave the diplomatic phase of the project behind us and kick off the concrete work,” he underscored, addressing his counterpart Sebastien Lecornu.
The ministers said they had tasked their army chiefs to hammer out the rough outlines of the new tank’s capabilities, to have a basic document ready at their next meeting in France in September or in the fourth quarter at the latest.
“We have established this calendar so that we can then provide proposals to Chancellor (Olaf) Scholz and President (Emmanuel) Macron on the contours of what this tank will be,” Lecornu said.
Both ministers were visibly at pains to demonstrate their harmony after months of squabbling between their countries over a variety of issues.
“The Franco-German friendship is unique…There is no country that we are closer to at different levels of our relations than France”, Pistorius underlined, stating that he again planned to spend his holiday in France this year.
He said he and Lecornu had immediately got along as both preferred to talk straight and tackle issues openly, which helped to solve problems much faster “than if you spend a lot of time beating around the bush”.
“There is a Pistorius method. He has a capacity to be very direct, very frank and it’s the best sign of friendship to move ahead and we put aside the diplomatic side to focus on results,” Lecornu said.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold and John Irish in Vilnius, Editing by William Maclean)
